Diddy Wants to Anoint You With Fragrant Oils

Do you feel kingly yet?Photo: Courtesy of Sean John

We know we’re not alone when we say this, but we completely heart Diddy. His brazen love of self, propensity for speaking in the third person, how much he enjoys being rich. Some have called him “arrogant,” and his grand displays of nouveau riche wealth “vulgar” but, to paraphrase Diana Vreeland, better to be vulgar than boring. And Diddy is definitely not boring (case in point: his recent YouTube dispatch warning that levels of global “bitchassness” are reaching record highs).

So we weren’t surprised to hear that he was naming his new fragrance I Am King. (Though we were surprised to hear it’s expected to make more than $100 million globally in its first year alone. For reals? Damn!) WWD reports that the new cologne will launch exclusively at Macy’s in December before going global in February, to be followed by an I Am Queen perfume for all the lay days in 2009.

What’s in a name? “I believe in positive affirmations,” Diddy says. “If I say, ‘I am not going to succeed, I’m a loser,’ then that’s what I am going to be. If we say we’re kings and we say we’re queens, that’s what we’re going to be. It has nothing to do with being arrogant.”

The print and TV campaign for I Am King portray Combs as a mogul in a suit, cavorting around Monaco and Saint-Tropez with models Bar Refaeli and Ana Paula, on jet skis around the French Riviera, lounging aboard his palatial yacht and playing the tables inside the Casino de Paris in Monte Carlo. So, you know, his everyday life. According to Diana Espino, vice-president and general manager of Sean John Fragrances, “This is a story that needs to be told.” Like the story of Jesus! Who was, coincidentally, also a king, and we bet would’ve totally dominated at the craps table as well. He would’ve passed on the jet skis, though: “No thanks, Diddy, I’ll walk.” —Noelle Hancock